If it's at all possible, I would avoid flying out of CDG at all. BRU might be a better option. At CDG the show is run by Air France and they DO NOT work the standby list properly.

In Oct 2005 I flew to CDG on a DL buddy pass and spent 2 days trying to get home. Over the course of the 3 days I got to know some of my fellow "bumpees" and gathered their seniority dates. By the 2nd day it became obvious that people with less seniority were being boarded and I was being left behind. The AF employees were simply writing down people's names on a piece of paper without regard to seniority. I finally put a stop to it when a group of 3 people with 2000 seniority were given seats and I was left behind with 1989 seniority.

I worked for DL for 8 years and now work for AA. In between jobs I used DL buddy passes to travel. I know how to non-rev and I knew this was not right! I asked to speak to a supervisor and finally got on a flight.

So...again my advice is fly into CDG but fly out of somewhere where it is actually DL running the operation. Especially if your flight is already showing negative in coach! I checked my flight the day before I left and it had 43 seats in coach and about 5 in business - with about 6 non-revs listed. And look what happened.

Be careful out there!